He warned his viewers there was “sombre news” coming. He was right.
The final two episodes of season five of Clarkson’s Farm, released on Tuesday night on Prime Video, contain Jeremy Clarkson telling his farm manager Kaleb Cooper and land agent Charlie Ireland that he has been diagnosed with cancer. The scenes were filmed last year. Clarkson, 66, describes the diagnosis as aggressive but caught early – and ends the series in a hospital bed, the treatment having gone, as he puts it, “a little awry.”
“If this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six,” he tells his audience. “And if it isn’t, I won’t. Take care, everyone.”
The scenes were filmed last summer, eight months after Clarkson had undergone heart surgery for blocked coronary arteries. He tells Cooper and Ireland he had gone for a routine medical in May, that a biopsy followed, and that the results came back positive. “I’ve got cancer,” he says. “It’s aggressive.” When Cooper asks what type, Clarkson deflects – “where it is, is of no concern to anybody” – but the subsequent episodes make it clear. “The prostate,” he says later. “10% of it’s dead. The 10% where the cancer is.”
He was sober about the timing. “If I hadn’t got myself checked out and they hadn’t caught the problem early, this could well have been my last harvest. It’s only because they did catch it early – there’s every hope that I’ll be harvesting this farm for many, many years to come.”
Before the episodes went live, Clarkson posted a warning on social media that was notably gentle by his usual standards. “Ordinarily we try to keep the show bucolic and charming and cheerful,” he said. “But the final two episodes which drop in the middle of the night tonight are none of those things, really. They’re a difficult watch.” He paused. “They’re really, really difficult.”
This is the same Jeremy Clarkson who, just last June, was urging men to go for prostate checks in typically Clarkson-ish terms. “I’ve had too many friends go down with prostate cancer,” he wrote, “and all it takes to get on top of the situation early is a moment or two of being a bit cross-eyed. You get the all-clear and the doc goes home happy. What’s not to like?”
The diagnosis he revealed on Tuesday is his own story catching up with that advice.
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, accounting for 28% of all new male cancer cases according to Cancer Research UK. There is no national NHS screening programme. Men aged 50 or over – and those aged 45 or older with a strong family history of the disease, or who are of Black or African-Caribbean ethnicity – can request a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test from their GP.
Clarkson’s repeated public advocacy for checking is part of the reason the story lands with particular force. He has been telling men for years to go and get tested. His own willingness to share his diagnosis – including the uncertainty of where treatment leaves him, and the very real possibility he has acknowledged that season six might not happen – carries more weight than a public health poster.
The show started its fifth season with Clarkson recovering from heart surgery. It ends with him back in a hospital bed, the farming year done, the outcome uncertain.
“Take care, everyone.”
If you are a man aged 50 or over, or 45 or over with a family history of prostate cancer or of Black or African-Caribbean ethnicity, you can request a PSA blood test from your GP. Further information is available at prostatecanceruk.org.
Leave a Reply